"It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing... I want to know
if you can be with joy,
mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful,
to be realistic,
to remember the limitations
of being human." -Oriah
I recently had a post on the website MindoverDepression.com about gratitude. Gratitude seems too simple to have any major effects on a person’s
mood. At any given moment, even when filled with a negative outlook, it’s
actually kind of easy to find something to be grateful for with a little
effort. It could be as simple as being thankful for free water at a water
fountain, owning a pair of socks, or for owning a old laptop with a taped on
space bar and a missing key because it still gets the job done (thank you to my
laptop for allowing me to type this!). It’s probably the simplest thing I have
ever done to improve my mood/ life. After a few weeks of putting some effort
into finding things I’m grateful for, it’s now an effortless mindset and my
mood has remained stable and positive for the longest stretch of time since I
can ever remember. While I believe everything on MindoverDepression.com has
helped me, gratitude has been a major piece of the puzzle.
With that said, lately I have been filled with a sometimes
almost overwhelmingly grateful feeling towards everyone who has supported me,
big or small, this year. Maybe it sounds cheesy, but the past few months I’ve
had dreams come true in large part to you. It has been my dream to support my
modest lifestyle through being creative in a variety of ways (writing, trying
to help those who with me share the journey of healing depression, videos,
artwork, t-shirt designs, and a book), and it has been a huge honor to have my
creative passions displayed in people’s homes or have my thoughts enter the
minds of others as they read my words. While I’m not sure how long this dream
will continue, words cannot express how thankful I am for the time I have had
living my dream and helping the dreams of others by always giving some proceeds
to charity (again, all because of you!).
Everyone wants to feel free. We want both our minds and our bodies to feel free. We want the freedom to fly where no vehicles can go. That’s why we run. Running has the magical power to free our minds so we can dream big and believe in our capabilities in every aspect of our lives. Running gives us the freedom to go to places that are only reachable by foot, and places so beautiful they take our breaths away (sometimes also caused by the lack of air in the mountains). This design represents that freedom we get from running, so where your shirt proudly and inspire others to find their free.
If you like it you can buy it here: http://teespring.com/findyourfree Get it as a present to yourself or for the runners in your life!
You can only get it until December 15!
I'm trying this out using Teespring which is mostly a good thing but has one downside. The shirts will only be printed if 30 are sold. The reason I'm using Teespring this time is because it's no risk money wise for me. I was nervous about ordering and buying a ton of shirts that may or may not sell. So this way I don't have to invest money I really want to use for Christmas presents. Also, Teespring ships the shirts straight to you which is great for me and Sage since our apartment is already filled with camera equipment, painting supplies, and running/ exercise stuff. :)
A note on some of the shirt choices:
Mens: Dark gray option coming (hopefully) sometime tomorrow. (Thanks Sage for picking out the men's shirt.)
Ladies: There are two women's specific shirts.
-The Bella Women's Favorite Tee. It's a junior fit so it's a bit smaller than a regular women's tee. I actually have this shirt in a small and it fits me perfectly, but it wouldn't if I was a tad ummmm....bustier. It looks exactly like the shirt in the above picture. The small fits me just like the picture below but its slightly longer.
7% of the proceeds will go to the Boys & Girls Club.
I am also going to apologize in advance if I go overboard promoting it. I only did a 10 day campaign so people could hopefully get it for Christmas presents.
If you don’t, here’s the summary. My stomach was constantly
bugging me and I was having trouble absorbing vitamins and minerals, especially
iron. The inside of my stomach was irritated and red, but that’s all the
doctors could tell me. I was extremely frustrated. I just wanted more energy
again.
According to Dr. Lissa Rankin’s book Mind over Medicine, my story
mirrors thousands of others. Dr. Rankin worked in Marin County California, a
place where people strive to eat healthy and stay fit. She was seeing patients
that, like me, eat a very clean and natural diet, and exercise regularly.
Interestingly, these patients were just as sick as the patients she saw when
she lived in an area filled with poverty and fast food. She then spent her time
researching the subject and came to the conclusion that stress or any negative
areas in your life can make you sick. (If you don’t believe this, read her book
and keep reading this. She was raised to be skeptical so she really did her
research.)
Though I’m not sure if this was the complete root of my problem,
it really made sense to me after reading the Tapping Solution by Nick Ortner.
In his book he states:
The stress response can cause a massive cascade of events in your
body, including:
·On average four times less blood flow to your
digestive system.
·Lower absorption of nutrients.
·Less enzyme production in your gut. (As much as
20,000 times less! This is one of the reasons why, when you eat a meal while
you’re stressed, you’ll often feel bloated and uncomfortable.)
·Decrease in gut flora population.
·Increase in cholesterol.
·Increase in cortisol and insulin levels.
Notice, the main two things I was experiencing, stomach
problems and trouble absorbing nutrients, can be caused by stress.
As you may have noticed by my blog and website postings, I
have been really working on healing my depression and reducing stress. And
guess what? There is a very noticeable difference in my energy. While I’m still
having trouble getting my iron up, something is obviously going right because I
don’t feel like sleeping all the time and I’m once again motivated to do the
things I love!
HUGE THANKS to everyone who has purchased the book!
I've also been working on designing some fashionable (for men and women) t-shirts! Below is one of the designs. Hoping to have some shirts available for purchase in the next few days. Something to keep in mind for holiday presents. :)
This past Saturday I had the pleasure of being at the first
annual Front Range Fall Running Clinic put on by Integrative Healing
Acupuncture and Wellness. While I learned a lot of great things, one thing that
really struck me is something all the elite athletes there had in common. Of
course everyone had insane passion and drive and that led each elite to not
only prosper, but also to burnout. Moreover, they experienced the burnout that
could lead to months or years of bad races.
Feeling burnt out?
Before I go on, to give this post a little more value, I’ll
list the athletes who spoke on this (I’ll give a quick background but I’m not
going to spend all the time I could typing out their ridiculous amount of
achievements):
Sage Canaday: 2 time Olympic Trials Qualifier, 2:16
marathoner, 2012 USATF mountain runner of the year, and winner of A LOT of
ultras.
Trent Briney: 4th at the 2004 Olympic Marathon
Trials, 3 time Olympic Qualifier, 2:12 marathoner, 5:37:56 50 mile time at JFK
2012, etc, etc, etc.
Jimmy Archer: Professional Triathlete for 12 years. (I’m sure he’s done awesome at
plenty of triathlons, but I barely know anything about the triathlon scene and
I won’t pretend to.) Coached by some of the best running coaches of all time:
Dr. Joe Vigil and Mark Wetmore.
I’m also going to reference some women who weren’t at the
clinic, but have openly talked about their burnout:
Nikki Kimball: Elite Ultra Runner for the North Face. Tons
of competitive ultra wins including Western States in 2007.
In her irunfar pre-race interview before Western States she
said:
“In hindsight, I should have taken 2009 completely off, and
I didn’t have the guts to do it. I think I’d be racing a lot better now if I
would have. If I could tell that to someone that was starting to experience
that slow down after eight to ten years of racing ultras, I’d say take the year
off and you’ll come back way, way stronger. We’re seeing that like Dave Mackey
took a bunch of years off and came back strong. You usually just see people
when they start to slow down if they’ve been on the top quit and not stay with
it. But I love the sport, I love the people in it, I want to stay with it. But
I should have taken the year off.”
Lynn BjorkLund: In 1981 she won the Pikes Peak Marathon in
record time. Lynn also had some major track and cross country wins.
“I trained too much.
It made for one exceptional race, but I spiraled into years of chronic overuse
injuries that took away my ability to run, as well as the joy of it.” What
ailed her after the 1981 Pikes Peak Marathon? “My ankle, my foot, my knee,
nothing singular or specific. If I could replay race day, I’d give that record
back in exchange for a life of healthy running. It wasn’t worth it.””- Legends of the Trail by Meghan Hicks, Trail
Running Magazine
Back to the Front Range Fall Running Clinic.
One woman, after hearing each elite athlete talk about
burnout, asked “How do you listen to your body? How do you know when you’re
overdoing it.?” GREAT QUESTION!
Most top athletes can look back and admit they knew they
were overdoing it and should have backed off. While there is certainly a fine
line between pushing one’s limits and pushing too hard, athletes, when honest
with themselves know where that line is. It’s just all too easy to get focused
on goals and not back off. However, the elite athletes had some great advice, and
hopefully by hearing their advice you’ll pay more attention to your body and
have the mental strength to back off.
The signs of (being on the verge of) burnout from the elites:
·Being
constantly tired. If you’re training hard there will be plenty of days
where you’ll be tired, but if you’re fatigued on a daily basis and you’re
getting enough sleep, there’s a problem. It could be completely from training,
or the heavy training might mean you’re not absorbing enough minerals and
vitamins, so get a blood test.
·Crankiness.
This can very well be your mind sending you a message that your body is saying
to slow down. Triathlete, Jimmy Archer, said that when he finally let his body recover
after experiencing chronic fatigue syndrome that his family and friends told
him he seemed like he was back to his old self because he was smiling and
laughing more. So if you don’t have any serious reasons to be cranky, check in
with your body and your training to see if you’re overdoing it.
·Compare
the times of your standard routes/ workouts. This is (in my opinion) a
great reason to have a training log. If you have a standard route, and you know
how long it normally takes you to complete it, and that time starts getting
slower or you’re working extra hard to stay around that time, it’s a good sign
you need a break. Same with workouts if your tempo runs or intervals getting are
getting slower or your working really hard to keep the same pace. (Of course,
weather conditions need to be considered.)
·Constant
injuries. Some people may just get injured easy or experience injuries due
to bad form, but constant or chronic injuries may also be a sign to slow down.
It’s your body saying “I just need a break!”
I’ve seen to many great runners have a small injury that turned into a
an injury that required them to take the majority of a year off. Better to just
listen to your body and take some time off or lessen the training load.
·Sleep
problems. Sage pointed out that a sign might not only be having trouble
waking up, but trouble falling asleep. It doesn’t seem to make sense that
falling asleep would be a problem, but your body is a little out of whack and
that can lead to problems falling asleep.
·Motivation.
Are you running and pushing yourself because you love it, or are you doing it
because you just feel like you’re supposed to be? If it’s the second reason on
a daily basis, you’re not only on the road to physical burnout, but your mind
is telling you that you need a break.
Other ways to avoid burnout from the elites:
As I
mentioned above, sometimes you just need to listen to your body and back off
training. However, the elite athletes mentioned ways to avoid even having to
back off peak season training by doing a few other things.
·Winter
cross training: Snowshoeing and skiing are great ways to keep your
endurance and work on a few other muscles in the off season, while having less
impact force on your body. If you enjoy playing indoor sports like basketball,
hockey, etc., go ahead and play. You’re still staying active while giving some
of your running muscles a rest.
·Plan rest
weeks. Many top athletes use the 3 weeks on, 1 week off rule, or something
similar. For the 3 weeks on, your miles might be high and speed workouts might
be hard. Then you take an off week so your body absorbs the hard training.
During this week you lessen your miles and you cut down the intensity of your
speed work.
·Rest (seriously)
after races. This seems like common sense, yet runners tend to start thinking
about another race and then push too hard to soon. Yes, your body might feel
good a week after a 50 mile race, but get 20 miles in a long run and you might
start feeling like crap. I know some runners like to race a lot, but is there a
price to be paid in the results or months or years down the road? (Look back at
Nikki Kimball’s comment above.)
So that’s the end of my summary of what the elite athletes
had to say. There are of course other ways to listen to your body so you don’t
burnout and other ways to avoid burnout. This is where I, and I’m sure many
others, would love to hear from you. If you’re not used to commenting, think of
it as helping someone else avoid the hardships of burnout.
